Salt Rain

Publishers Weekly

Fourteen-year-old Allie Curran mourns the death of her mother, Mae, and longs to discover the identity of her father in this sparely written but emotionally tumid debut novel from Australian Armstrong. When Mae goes missing from her Sydney house, her clothes found piled neatly in her dinghy, drifting in the water for three nights, Allie's aunt Julia fetches her niece back to the smalltown dairy farm where Mae grew up. While they await the recovery of Mae's body-with Allie in denial-Allie summons the courage to speak to her mother's first love, the mysterious Saul Philips. Mae raised Allie on wistful tales of Saul, and Allie still wonders if he might be her father, despite her mother's version of events: that a hot-air balloonist at the country fair seduced and abandoned her. But as Allie settles in to life on the farm, she admits to herself the facts of Mae's death and discovers that the truth of her parentage is far darker than what she had imagined. The novel's setting, a rainy farming valley in northern Australia, makes for effective atmosphere, but the backward-looking narrative moves slowly, mired in Allie's memories of Mae. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this debut from journalist Armstrong, originally published in Australia, 15-year-old Allie lives with her mother, Mae, in Sydney. When Mae drowns in the harbor near their home, Allie is forced to move in with her aunt Julia in rural Australia on the dairy farm where Mae was raised. Through Mae's family and first love, Saul, Allie slowly uncovers her mother's past. At first, she refuses to believe what she finds, but eventually Allie is forced to confront the truth, including the shocking identity of her father. This book was short-listed for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award, the 2005 Dobbie Award, and the Queensland Premier's Literary Award, and Armstrong has been compared to Barbara Kingsolver. But her book lacks the character depth and realistic dialog that make Kingsolver's works such a success. Armstrong also violates Rule 17 of William Strunk's The Elements of Style, packing her text with needless words and thus causing certain passages to seem forced. Recommended for larger public libraries only.-Stephen Morrow, Amherst, MA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Myths of paternity unravel when an orphaned teen returns to her family's remote Australian farm during the rainy season. Mood is everything in Armstrong's debut, a rites-of-passage tale set in a claustrophobic valley community. Heat and rain mingle with mud and mist as illegitimate 14-year-old Allie moves in with Aunt Julia after her mother Mae's drowning in Sydney harbor. Julia, who lives on the old family spread, is obliterating the farm, turning the land back over to forest while guarding a weighty secret. Mae grew up here with her first love, local boy Saul; years later, she wove stories about the identity of Allie's father that simultaneously implicated Saul and a mysterious balloon man met at a fair. Allie stalks Saul, but he denies he and Mae were ever lovers. Armstrong ratchets up the symbolism as steamy rains fall, flood levels rise, the forest creeps and sexual liaisons surface. Finally, as the water overflows, we learn the truth about Mae, who was sexually abused by her father. Tired of the loneliness created by her burden of silence and pushed over the edge by her married lover's violence, she chose death. Written with a touching absorption in its slender material, the novel finally finds Allie accepting the reasons behind her mother's watery suicide. Armstrong is talented, but her emotional delicacy is in danger of drowning in the portentous atmospherics.